HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The case against Desiree Childers, charged in the drowning death of her infant daughter, will go to a grand jury, but the judge issuing that order expressed doubt that it should be a capital murder charge.

Madison County District Court Judge Claude Hundley also agreed to a defense request to grant Childers' a $500,000 bond that includes electronic monitoring.

In her first court appearance, Childers, 27, sobbed audibly several times during the preliminary hearing.

Childers is charged with placing her fully-clothed 7-month-old daughter, Blakely Alexandria Fairburn, in the bathtub and leaving her there to drown. Testimony during the hearing suggested the child's father returned to their Madison home on the evening of Aug. 30 to find the baby floating facedown in the tub. Attempts at CPR were unsuccessful.

Childers was the only person home with the baby at the time of the child's death.

Madison Police Department investigator Christie Gover was the only witness during the preliminary hearing and testified that Childers was especially stressed out on the day the baby died.

Childers had been arrested earlier that day for shoplifting cat toys and cat products at Walmart. She was later the subject of a Huntsville Police Department traffic stop, before returning to her Madison home.

The detective said Childers was a patient at a local methadone clinic and had taken methadone that same morning. A toxicology test taken after the baby's death found methadone and a generic form of Xanax in Childers' system.

Gover said during an interview with Childers after the baby's death that Childers said she regularly had terrible dreams and was often unable to sleep. She complained about being overtired and said she had a recurring dream where she was locked up alone forever in a dirty prison.

The detective said Childers never really gave an explanation for how the child ended up in the tub, though on the night the baby died, Childers accused a female roommate of killing the child. Childers told police that she ran the tub to clean it, but didn't recall placing the baby in it. Gover testified that Childers said repeatedly that the baby couldn't have climbed in the tub herself, but never continued with an explanation.

Gover also said that Childers admitted being frustrated with the child for crying while she was "trying to get things done."

The baby was able to crawl, but couldn't stand up on her own and couldn't have turned on the water, Gover testified, citing interviews with family members and a day-care teacher. The baby was also suffering from respiratory problems and was having breathing treatments at the time of her death, Gover said.

A state medical examiner said the baby died from drowning and ruled it a homicide, Gover testified.

Defense attorneys Bruce Gardner and Patrick Hill pointed out that Childers was originally charged with reckless murder not capital murder. In Alabama a capital murder conviction carries either a death sentence or life in prison without parole.

Gardner argued there was no evidence that Childers intended to kill the child and questioned Gover why the charge was elevated to capital murder. She said that the charge came after reviewing the facts of the case with the Madison County District Attorney's office. Gover also testified that several people she interviewed said Childers was often angry with her two children - she also has a three-year-old daughter - cursing at them to shut up.

Madison County Assistant District Attorney Tim Gann told the court that Childers' actions, putting a fully clothed infant in the tub, speak to her intent.

Judge Hundley said he thought the evidence presented was weak. The judge said he wasn't sure a jury would find for the prosecution, but acknowledged the standards for probable cause are lower than conviction, so he ordered it sent to a grand jury to consider an indictment.

Gann said the prosecution isn't required to put on its whole case during the preliminary hearing, but he said the state feels strongly that capital murder is the right charge.

A bond hearing was also held, which featured a wildly complicated tale about arrest warrants in the case.

Gann told the court Madison detectives initially got an arrest warrant for reckless murder and a no-bond order from retired Circuit Judge Laura Hamilton. Hundley questioned why they didn't go to a sitting judge, and noted that warrant would have been defective in the eyes of the law. A second warrant was obtained with a $50,000 bond, Gann said, but that warrant was destroyed because it did not come from the on-duty judge that Labor Day weekend.

The explanation included a claim that the detective mixed up judge's names. She thought she was told to go to senior retired Judge (Bill) Page, who can sign warrants, for the second warrant, but the actual direction was to go to the duty judge, Circuit Judge (Donna) Pate. A magistrate judge spotted the error, so Page's warrant was shredded. A third warrant, with a $500,000 bond signed by Pate, was obtained.

The defense argued it planned to challenge the legality of the arrest and original no-bond order, but a few days before a hearing on the bond issue, prosecutors dropped the reckless murder charge and raised Childers' case to capital murder.

Hundley granted a $500,000 bond over the prosecution's objections. Gann had argued bond is not usually given in capital murder cases, that Childers was a flight risk with ties to other states and had a failure to appear charge in Illinois.

Childers' attorney Patrick Hill cited state law regarding bond in a capital case that says bond should be denied if the court finds the evidence is great in showing the defendant is guilty of a crime punishable by death. Hundley said the evidence shows a case that could just have easily been charged as reckless murder.